2TB : WD Green EARS vs. Samsung F4 EcoGreen

[mascotzel]

I want a new 5400rpm drive for file sharing. It will be used internally.
Speed is not that important, I want it to be reliable and low noise.

Both are 3 platter I think.
Which one to get from the 2?

Also,would EADS version be an option? (it's not found anymore in retail,maybe I'll find a low use one).

[Tzeb]

1. Forget about EADS. 500GB platters, old tech.

2. If you are 100% sure you can get the 3 platter EARS (ask for WD20EARS-00MVWB0), flip a coin and randomly chose it or the f4. I say this because i just got an EARS made in september and it was still the old version with 4 platters (came from Thailand). I sent it back and i will get an f4. I had one EARS with 3 platters and it was OK the short time i used it. F4 is ~3-4% faster.

More info about the EARS - http://vr-zone.com/articles/667gb-per-p ... 335-1.html

[zsero]

I bought a new EARS 20 in September and it was the 4 platter version. It produced a strange error that it's sequential reading and sequential writing speeds were good, but it was almost freezing in copy-verify file operations. It took about 4 times as much time to copy files with verify operation compared to my other EARS. But no SMART or any other tool showed any problem and WD's support was stupid, they kept saying to me that if there is no problem showing up in their diagnostic tool, then there is no problem at all. I told them that even if SMART is OK, then there could be so many other problems. I ended up returning it to the shop after lot of arguments and letters that I don't want this hard drive, as they kept saying this hard drive has no problems.

With WD you have a random chance of receiving a good drive from a good plant or a bad drive from a bad plant. For example my 4 platter 1.5 TB EADS is much more quiet and producing less resonation than my 3 platter 1.5 TB EARS. It shouldn't happen but one is from a better factory than the other.

I would definately not buy any WD in the future, this strange read-verify problem and the way how their support handled the case really got me away from WD. And they are the only brand which is constantly working on changes to firmware to make it impossible/very hard to use their consumer drives in RAID based environments! You can buy the cheapest Samsung or Hitachi drive for RAID and it would just work out of the box in any operating system under any RAID card. With WD, if you don't buy their consumer line, you end up with many sleepless nights trying to figure out how to make it work in RAID!

But actually I am glad that I returned the WD drive. From now on, all I will buy is Samsung HD204UI! It's fast, quiet, cool and made by Samsung. Works in RAID out of the box, supported buy all NAS devices. And even if Newegg reviews are quite strange, just look at them. It's by far the best 2 TB drive at Newegg, and it's the only one with 5 star average rating. I know some of the reviews at Newegg are written by stupid boys giving 1 star because the 2 TB drive is not showing up as 2000 GB in windows and so on, but many of the reviews seems to be from guys using it in RAID environments, or for 12 disk based SAN devices, so I think it can be trusted a bit more.
Newegg reviews

[Compddd]

Just because you had a bad experience doesn't mean WD is bad. Their GreenPower drives are the highest rated storage drives on SPCR for silence. I've never had a problem with WD, been using them for 10+ years.

As for the OP, I'd go with the WD 2TB EARS if you can make sure it's the 3 platter version.

[Tzeb]

Maybe the WD factory in Thailand is behind in manufacturing upgrades. 667GB/platter drives were comming out of the Malaysian factory in may-june and Thailand was still building 500GB/platter drives at the end of september. It's annoying not knowing what you are getting. So much nicer would have been if the 667GB/platter EARS would have been EART or something else. At least with samsung there is never any doubt about what you are getting. I've had ~10 samsung drives in the last few years and not 1 has failed. I also have a 1.5TB EARS from Malaysia (3 platters) and i had no issues with it, but it's rarely used.

F4 = better choice.

[zsero]

OK, one sample might not mean anything, but just let's quote from newegg's feedback page of WD20EARS. I collected these from the last 10 review. I did not dig into the reviews to find bad ones, it's just the last page.

1. It failed in one day!

2. After 4 months of light to mediate usage I began to notice I/O errors that caused rtorrent to close, and file serving to be interrupted. Smartctl is now reports bad sectors.

3. One DOA

4. DOA... I'm not sure if it's a con against the drive, it's just DEAD. It happens...

5. One of two was defective out of the box. I plugged it in and it was randomly unmounting. It took me a few minutes of moving drives around to realize the other was fine, working as expected, and one was just plain broken.

6. They don't let you turn off TLER. If they did, I would buy six more of these, but instead I have to buy the older model.

[Compddd]

Newegg reviews are from people who are generally morons when it comes to computers. Also look at all the good reviews They vastly outweigh the bad.

[mascotzel]

I'll have to check if the EARS is 3 platter,I assumed that by this time all of them would be like this.

Performance isn't my no.1 criteria,so EADS is in my list because of the good noise rating the 1.5 model got on SPCR, although it's a 4 platter drive and it probably has a lower performance (than 3 platter ones) and the 2TB drive could have a different behavior than the 1.5TB model ( also, acoustic performance may vary from sample to sample)

Also, I see two F4 drives listed in my country :
- HD204UI
- HD204UI / Z4

Does anyone know what's that about?

[fjf]

I have a 20EADS as main drive and it is less noisy and faster than my old 500GB samsung (which was very good). Problem is they are being discontinued and (if you find them) they are more expensive than the ears models, likely because the eads dont have the silly 4kb formatting problem.

[mascotzel]

EADS is not an option in retail, it isn't sold anymore.

I'm still waiting for answers on the disks details from the shop. I'll probably make the move in a week or so.

[Lawrence Lee]

Newegg reviews are from people who are generally morons when it comes to computers. Also look at all the good reviews They vastly outweigh the bad.

I find Newegg reviews to be very useful because they have such a large sample size. It won't tell you if a product is truly good, but it will tell you if there's a problem. If I see an item with lots of reviews and a good chunk of them are 1-star, it's an automatic do not buy for me.

In response to the thread topic, all my storage drives are Caviar Greens and none of them have let me down. I'd also like to mention that I paid for all of them rather than taking them from the lab.

[Compddd]

Ok Lawrence good to know

Do you have any info on the WD 1.5 greens moving to a 2 platter design using the new 750GB platter disks?

[josephclemente]

I've got a few of these Samsung F4 drives on the way, thanks to this morning's Newegg $60+free shipping deal.

[webwiznz2]

OP: i had some nice WDs in the early 2000s up to an inlcuding a 250GB WD2500JB, which i thought was the bees knees in terms of quiet, at the time. Then i got a 500GB version cant remember the model, didnt even install it it , the noise was abolutely shocking, gave it away the same day in disgust. After that i went samsung and never looked back.

josephclemente: when you get them can you let us know what the vibration variance is per my F4 thread.

[josephclemente]

Yes, I'll check for any vibration variances. I have 4 on the way to test with.